Ostensible Cat

Here's this week's creature feature. This week is a creature that haunts the far north and stalks those foolish enough to venture into the northern wilds at night. Loosely based upon a Native American legend, this is the Amarok. As with my last creature feature, the Amarok is designated open content so feel free to use it as you wish (aside for the art which is not open content and is copyright John Bingham - me). Again stated out for use with LL, it should be a fairly simple matter for a DM to convert to suit the DM's needs. Name: Amarok (wolf) No. Enc: 1 Alignment: Chaotic Movement: 200’ (70’) Armor Class: 4 Hit Dice: 8 Attacks: 1 (bite) Damage: 1d12 Save: F4 Morale: 8 Hoard Class: None Description: An amarok is a monstrous wolf akin to normal and dire wolves. However, amaroks are much more cunning and malicious than even dire wolves (6’ at shoulder). Native to the coldest reaches of the northernmost tundra and woodlands; these beasts hunt

Ok, so here's how I spent my lunch, creating a new critter based upon a mythological reference. Alito was a grain goddess in ancient times (her name apparently means grain or is associated with grain in Greek). Over time, Alito became associated with disease and death (don't you just love it). At any rate, in true Old School spirit, I took a limited reference and created a new group of creatures based off of this reference (similar in spirit to Medusa, the Minotaur, Gorgons, etc). At any rate, this is stated out for use with Labyrinth Lord. I am also designating the Alitae open conent, so feel free to use it as you wish (but if you happen to publish it elsewhere, I'd be grateful for attributing it to me). Please note: the artwork is not open content is is copyright John Bingham (me) 2010. Name: Alitae No. Enc: 1 Alignment: Chaotic Movement: 60’ (20’), Special Armor Class: 6 Hit Dice: 3 Attacks: 1 Damage: by weapon, disease Save: M3 Morale: 6 Hoar

Well, not really but to be honest, I've been reading, playing, talking about and dreaming about fantasy gaming for many a year. In that time, I've become a bit jaded with the standard fantasy tropes (say it ain't so). No, I'm not some disgruntled grognard or some young kid that prefers Dragonball to Dragonlords of Melnibone. No, I don't think it's the fantasy tropes in and of themselves; it is just the way that they are used that really gets me. Over the past four years or so (coinciding with my interest and involvement in the Old School Renaissance), I've become much more of a fan of humanocentric gaming (and I suspect that contributes to my growing appreciation of basic forms of Dungeons and Dragons over my life long love affair with the Advanced rule set. You see, I like my fantasy to be somewhat mysterious. The human experience of interfacing with the unknown and/or the fantastical. I can't make any authoritative comments, but it is my impress

Or to be more precise Swords and Wizardry vs. Labyrinth Lord. As I said, I've pretty much been an AD&D guy (or OSRIC). However, the simpler rulesets of Basic D&D have really been sparking my interest lately. I really, really am liking Labyrinth Lord. I want to like the simplicity of Swords and Wizardry, but there are a couple of things turning me off. one is the d6 damage. I really don't care for dragons doing only 1d6 bite damage (and only one attack per round is listed - except a breath weapon - for which no damage is listed). Now, according to the ethics of old school play that are enspoused by S&W, I as a DM can change this to suit my tastes. Which is all well and good but I'm really looking at this from the perspective of my OSR project. I want to release it at some point back to the community, but the rule sets of Labyrinth Lord appeal to me more. But if I think about it, the rule set shouldn't matter too much as a good DM should be able to e

It looks like BHP is going to continue supporting Labyrinth Lord. This is great news as I’ve been pleased with their products. I think People of the Pit turned out great (even though it is designed as an OSRIC product – it is for the most part extremely compatible). I know that BHP had built up a following for their Old School products and a lot of folks were saddened by the news. I think the diversity of small publishers supporting the OSR is a good thing. These folks are by-and-large true fans of the games they support and it show in how well crafted the majority of these products are. Especially when you stop and consider that for the most part, this is fan created material, not professional designers/writers/artist who do this for a living (no knock intended).